De_flieger
What makes you think companies will upgrade their processes to a lower carbon base beyond what they would normally do with normal plant upgrades etc, in a properly functioning free market economy? What also makes you think for one second companies will pass on savings made with a reduction in carbon taxes?
As I have said without a substantial carbon tax impost on the end user, i.e. the consumer, all the carbon tax achieves is further wealth redistribution.
Please don’t get me started with oil companies and their investments in the renewable energy sector. Shell made a substantial investment in the early 2000’s only to sell almost all of it at the height of the market boom in 2009. Mobil made a similar investment in the sector in 2009 after pressure from the Obama administration. In fact, climate legislation is likely a key driver in oil companies' decisions to invest in alternative-energy technologies and hence their talking up of the sector to bolster their investments. I can assure you that if they weren’t being forced to make these investments in renewable energy they wouldn’t be talking about carbon emissions the way they currently are.